Lovász re-elected as president of Hungarian Academy of Sciences

Budapest (MTI) – The Hungarian Academy of Sciences (MTA) re-elected its president, László Lovász, for another three-year term on the second day of its 188th general assembly on Tuesday.

The academy is an independent body, which gives priority to the interests of science, irrespective of its members’ political affiliation, Lovász, who is a mathematician by profession, told a press briefing.

He noted that the MTA offered to mediate between the government and the Central European University (CEU), a Budapest university funded by American financier George Soros, seen as the target of an amendment to the higher education law tightening control over foreign universities in Hungary.

“As the CEU has an excellent scientific record, the academy would see it as extremely unfortunate should it be forced to move abroad”, Lovász said.

The assembly also decided to amend the statutes of MTA according to the suggestions of the Women as Researchers committee, formed last year to investigate the reasons for the scarce number of women among MTA members. The assembly takes measures to encourage the admittance of women to the academy, he said.